World Bank Approves $350 Million Loan for Morocco’s Blue Economy Initiative

This program is part of a new national strategy for the blue economy with a total cost of $2 billion (cumulative sectoral budgets concerned) for the next five years, developed by the government in line with the objectives of the new development model (NMD).

Concretely, the Moroccan approach to the blue economy is defined around all the activities contributing to the protection and enhancement of marine and coastal resources with three central objectives. These are economic development and job creation at the territorial level, the country’s food security and the protection and enhancement of environmental resources.

In this sense, a plan has been established with the World Bank, with the aim of laying the foundations of the government’s strategy for the development of the blue economy, all structured around two interdependent areas of results that contribute to this strategy.

The first aims to strengthen the integrated framework for the development of the blue economy, by supporting the development of institutional and financial frameworks to strengthen vertical and horizontal coordination. It will require a budget of $45.55 million.

The second area of results, which aims to improve the integrated management of natural resources and strengthen selected sectors, focuses mainly on the key activities of the marine sector in order to promote a climate-resilient blue economy to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. An amount of $393.35 million has been allocated to this component, it is noted.